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There are plenty of myths about homeschoolers that I can confidently debunk. Most homeschooled kids are not losers without social lives, for example; on the contrary, most have more friends and more fulfilling social lives than any kids in school that I know. I also hate it when people tell me, “Oh, well you’re a teacher already, so it’s OK, but if you don’t have a teaching degree, you shouldn’t homeschool.”

Well, that’s complete BS, because all my teaching classes taught me were classroom management—discipline, not teaching—and I didn’t teach any better or worse with them (well, I would have taught worse had I integrated them). That said, some parents do leave me wondering what the heck they do with their kids when they do seem incompetent themselves.

I have been running a homeschool group—mostly because nobody else offered to do it, though I do enjoy organizing events in groups of people who can act like adults. I stress this because oftentimes people just don’t, and it’s really starting to get to me. I have tried to be fair and pleasant and accommodating, but it’s really starting to eat into work time for me, and I just wanted to get a few things off my chest…

I shouldn’t have to remind people if they signed up for things. I’m not a second grade teacher keeping track of your homework. You have a calendar; use it. If I confirmed when you signed up, you’re down; so write it down.

TELL ME if you aren’t going to show up after you sign up! We wait for you to get started. It’s embarrassing if 30 people sign up for a field trip and less than a third of them arrive, especially if a business cleared its schedule and prepared many handouts, foodstuffs, or other materials just for us.

I’m not a God. So please don’t expect me to know everything every moment of every day, or to move mountains to schedule two (or three or more!) of the classes I’m hosting just to accommodate you. I also don’t have time to write down all of the activities for you or to individually email you just because you “don’t want” to join a Yahoo! Group. It’s not hard to do, and you are asking a lot for me to do this. I’m a homeschooler too, and while I know you think that since I have an Only Child I must have all the time in the world—but I also care for an elderly relative a house full of pets and I have my own business that I’m constantly trying to improve and grow, so please don’t make assumptions.

Why is it that the people who never come to anything so feverishly demand to know when this or that is, or seem so disgruntled? Show up and maybe that will help.

Check the calendar. Check the messages. Use the search tool. Please don’t ask me to repeat things that I’ve already posted for you when you can find them in seconds. The same thing goes for Googling anything on the group that you are unfamiliar with, from terms to locations to anything in between; sometimes I really wonder what you use that computer for. It’s one thing to have a discussion; it’s quite another to keep asking for things that you can easily find on your own.

For goodness sakes, don’t get haughty with me! (I think I’m doing enough of that for us both right now, don’t you?!) I am doing this all voluntarily so my daughter can have a local group that’s open to both non-religious people as well as religious (our county has plenty of latter groups). I’m not a dictator, so if something’s not been decided because no one can agree, don’t blame me for it. If you’re indignant because something isn’t up to your standards, perhaps you should seek a bigger group that requires payments instead of our little free one.